She grew weaker by the day. She could no longer feel any sensation in her arms, as they were chained up above her. She could barely keep herself awake. The torch on the cavern wall blinded her. Her bones ached, her head throbbed.

Crescent was dying, more and more each day. The growls of her stomach were indistinguishable from the screams of agony in her mind. Her throat was drier than a desert. The scales on her tail shriveled from lack of water. Sure, from her pool of water that reached her hips, most of her tail was under water. But the water was stale, confining, and dirty.

She hadn't drunken anything in over a week. Her last morsel of food was given to her days ago. She never thought she could be any thinner than she already was. Sadly, she was mistaken.

Other than the flickering of the torch's flame due to the cold wind, there was no sound audible in the cave. That is, until footsteps echoed off the walls. Crescent knew what that meant. Her captor was coming to "ask her more questions".

Step by step, the villain grew closer and louder. She couldn't fight her off anymore. All she had was her ability to remain silent. She hadn't spoken in weeks, knowing anyone could hear her.

The most wicked woman Crescent ever met walked into the cave, acting regal and like she was deserving of whatever she asked for. Her lips stretched to form a thin smile. Her black hair swung lifelessly at her waist. The sight struck resentment in Crescent. Seeing as the woman approaching her was the same monster who chopped off her formally long locks.

This time, the villain was holding another torch in her hand. Her heels clicked as the hit the cave ground, echoing throughout the area and giving Crescent as splitting headache.

She stopped a meter before the minuscule pool of water Crescent was trapped in. Well, half of her was trapped in. This scenario had been played through dozens of times. All of them ended with her captor storming out the cave in rage and Crescent holding down her screams of agony.

Her villain, her monster, her worst nightmare. Sybil Mira, First Lieutenant to Queen Levana's entire military and country. She'd been the cause of every horrible thing in Crescent's life. Sybil stole her from her family, forced her to work for Levana, and held her against her will for years.

Crescent found the will to escape when she met a daring captain, and went on a whirlwind of adventures with him. They'd found treasures, discovered uncharted islands, uncovered mysteries and stories the world had never seen before.

One of those adventures led her to her own kidnapping. To Sybil taking her captive and "interrogating" her to extract the location of the treasure. Her life had been restored to its former torture. But all was not lost, seeing as how Crescent's actions led to Thorne's escape. If she'd stayed on his ship with him, he would have been taken with her.

She had to hide the Lunar Codex from him. To protect him, and so she was the only one to blame for "misplacement" of the sacred book. A text that could lead to the end of Levana's tyranny.

"Where is the Codex," Sybil demanded. The first question she asked Crescent every time she entered the cave. And every time, Crescent refused to answer.

Since she was the only one who knew the whereabouts of the Codex, Sybil couldn't kill her. Levana desired to possess the book, and/or destroy it before it reached the hands of anyone who could overthrow her.

In Crescent's opinion, the queen's paranoia would lead to her downfall. Like Macbeth, her actions were made out of fear of resistance to her rule, and it would hopefully cost Levana her life.

Crescent was tired of being the weak one, the one in need of rescuing. Sailing the ocean rather than swimming through it helped her to grow and find courage. Her strength flourished and confidence skyrocketed (even though she didn't know what a rocket was, as again, they hadn't been invented yet).

Spending time with Carswell Thorne helped burn the timid and naive shell she'd been trapped in. Crescent may have still been childish, over imaginative, and endlessly hopeful. That did not mean she was weak or ignorant. At least, not anymore.

She glared at Sybil and restrained a smile. She knew where the Codex was, and it was in one of the most secure places in all of the Caribbean. As protector of the Codex, she would defend the book and its contents with her life. As her father did before her. He gave his life protecting the book from the Blackburn family, and Crescent would do the same.

Her father had been a doctor for the Blackburn family, hiding from them in plain sight. When Levana discovered the doctor's secret, she had him executed. All before Levana discovered the doctor handed the Codex off to his daughter, a mermaid, to keep from her hands. It took Levana six years to track Crescent down, which was only after she'd started traveling above water with Thorne.

She'd been in locked up in the cave for two years now. As Sybil loved to remind her of the world around her that was passing her by. She lied, saying that once she gave up the location of the Codex, she would go free. Yet, Crescent knew the truth. Levana knew she'd looked inside the book, that she'd been with it too long not to get curious. She would kill her for the information in her mind.

As long as she refused to talk, she would stay alive. Levana would get no closer to finding the Codex. There was still hope that someone could defeat Levana.

And the fact that Sybil was much more stern today, and less persuasive, it meant something was going wrong in Levana's scheme for world domination. Something that went up to Sybil's duties, and was enough to peeve her.

Something that could potentially ruin her plan.

Sybil grit her teeth and shoved the lit end of the torch closer to Crescent's face. The light blinding her and the heat scorching her. "Where is the Codex?!" she bellowed. Crescent still held her tongue. Her silence was her only advantage.

Seeing no other way to make her talk, Sybil pressed the torch onto Crescent's arm. The coals burned through her delicate skin and coaxed a scream from her lungs. The immense sound cracking her parched throat. Her vision became worse, more blurred and confused. Her arm did look burned, badly. She hated to see it once – or if – her sight was fully restored.

Through the pain, Crescent never gave up the location of the book. If her friend had done as Crescent requested, she'd dropped the Codex at the most secure building in the Caribbean.

The Governor's house in Port Royal.

Yes, Levana went there, and there was a chance she could find it. There was also a chance she could uncover the book if it was hidden at the bottom of the ocean. The difference was, Levana had some restrains in the Governor's house, and could do as she pleased across the seven seas.

Port Royal was a place for runaways and fugitives. Hiding out there wasn't terribly difficult. Of course, they had rules and regulations. There was a law in place that told the militia of Port Royal to go after and persecute Lunar Fugitives.

Well, a fifth of the population of Port Royal was Lunar. They hid their tattoos, they lied about their pasts, and concealed their gifts.

Those who had gifts to conceal.

Crescent had no such problem in that area. She was a Shell, or an ungifted as other Lunar preferred to call it. She had no Glamour, though she was also immune to all Glamours. A sort of trait that comes as a weakness and a strength. She couldn't control others, no one could control her.

On the weirder side of things, she was a mermaid. So ... yeah. Bigger picture.

If all had gone according to plan, the Codex was safe and protected inside the Governor's household. And, it was a mockery to Levana. As Crescent's father did, the Codex was hiding in plain sight. If Levana ever lived to find the whereabouts of the book, she would surely slap herself. In her wretched, veil covered face.

As the burning agony in her arm didn't push her to reveal the location of the Codex, Sybil resorted to another form of torture.

Sybil sneered. "Your consort, Carswell Thorne-"

"Captain," Cress corrected, out of force of habit. Seeing Sybil's reaction, Cress knew she'd made a mistake.

"Well, your captain has caught the attention of the Lunar Crown again. He's aiding a Lunar Fugitive in acts against our queen. They were going to be hung together, until the girl broke your boyfriend out of jail and took him with her to go pirating. One of our Lieutenants is already in pursuit of them, and they'll surely be hung in two days time at the latest." Her smile was a thin line of anger and annoyance. With a tad of pleasure, knowing her captive cared for the man in question.

What Sybil couldn't grasp, was the man in question was Captain Carswell Thorne. The most crafty pirate in all the Caribbean. If anyone could escape the the Lunar Crown, it was Thorne. If Sybil wasn't the one going out of her way to find him, the chances of the Lieutenant capturing Thorne were less than 50/50. If anything, that Lieutenant should be afraid. Thorne could turn the tables to his favor in almost any situation. And those who opposed him ... well, they weren't his concern.

They were in his way.